A waterfowl decoy device producing a realistic visual quality.
The present invention is an improved method for animating a waterfowl decoy for attracting ducks or other waterfowl to a particular body of water or location in a body of water. Traditionally, hunters have used unanimated devices that resemble waterfowl with varying degrees of realism. These traditional designs did nothing more than float passively in the water or stand statically on a pole-mounted assembly. Such a traditional design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,642 to DeKezel.
More recently, there have been attempts to give decoys some type and degree of motion in order to better simulate live waterfowl. One such moving waterfowl decoy is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,683 to Solomon. The ability to effect movement on the decoy disclosed and claimed in Solomon, however, was limited by the motor assembly and the wing design.
Overall, prior efforts to create a realistic form of motion in a waterfowl decoy have fallen short of producing lifelike motion and a realistic appearance. Further, many of the prior art designs have been complex, expensive to produce, and/or difficult to use. The present invention addresses a waterfowl decoy that produces a more realistic visual image with tremendous flexibility in the movements and visual effects.
The invention enhances the performance of a moving decoy by using an offset support assembly attached to a driver motor""s shaft assembly. The driver motor provides the necessary power to rotate the shaft assembly and the offset support assembly. Appendages, such as a wing structures, are attached to the offset support assembly by an attachment bracket. This design offsets the attachment point of the appendage a radial distance from the longitudinal axis of the shaft assembly to move the appendage in a circular rotation around the longitudinal axis of the shaft assembly. The circular rotation of the shaft assembly with the rotating offset support assembly imparts a unique visual quality to the rotating wing appendages. Foot paddles may also be attached to the offset assembly to cause the decoy to move in the water. Wing types and foot paddles are interchangible, and different combinations of the appendages can produce different visual effects.